Liam Byrne: Labour 'must get tough on big business'

Labour must promise voters more power to improve schools and hospitals and
take tougher action against the “robber barons” of big business to win the
next election, Liam Byrne, the party’s policy strategist, says.

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Liam ByrnePhoto: PA

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His comments come after Labour claimed victory over the bonus of Stephen Hester, the RBS chief.Photo: REX FEATURES

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Stephen Hester, Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive, at the Warwickshire hunt in 2008Photo: DAILY RECORD

The Labour leader has faced criticism that he is failing to “break through” with the public and has been attacked by the party's traditional union backers for warning that a future Labour government could not promise to reverse all of the Coalition’s public spending cuts.

Yesterday, Labour was claiming credit for forcing Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, to waive his £1million bonus.

In a blueprint for the party’s future campaigns, Mr Byrne says Labour should back further assaults on the excesses of big business: “Business needs government to be more hands-on, not hands-off.”

Banks must be made to provide credit to companies “and in return we ask for behaviour that does not resemble the worst excesses of robber barons”, he says.

Mr Byrne argues that the welfare state must be reformed so that everyone can feel “the system is based on what you put in as well as what you take out”.

In language that echoes the Coalition’s own policies on welfare reform, he writes: “No one should be able to choose a life on benefits over a life in work.”

Public services must also improve at the same time as funding is cut in some areas, Mr Byrne says. Labour must be the party offering to put “more power in people’s hands to change the services they pay their taxes for”.

In his 61-page book for the Progress think tank, published today, Mr Byrne makes a plea not to return to the Old Labour agenda.

“Winning for Labour in the UK in 2015 demands hard thought about what we need to keep, and what we need to change,” he says.

“The key insight for us to keep is this: elections are won in the centre-ground; building an alliance around the basic values of aspiration, responsibility and community that unite our traditional supporters with the voters that tend to switch sides.”